


A New Appreciation

by Inell



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Post-War, Romance, The Quidditch Pitch: Eternity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-15
Updated: 2006-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-26 06:47:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10781712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inell/pseuds/Inell
Summary: Hermione has a new appreciation for the game.





	A New Appreciation

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Annie, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Quidditch Pitch](http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Quidditch_Pitch), which went offline in 2015 when the hosting expired, at a time I was not able to renew it. I contacted Open Doors, hoping to preserve the archive using an old backup, and began importing these works as an Open Doors-approved project in April 2017. Open Doors e-mailed all authors about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Quidditch Pitch collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/thequidditchpitch/profile).

  
Author's notes: ABC Challenge #4 – W: Wizard Chess for [](http://sweden-girl25.livejournal.com/profile)[**sweden_girl25**](http://sweden-girl25.livejournal.com/)  


* * *

Wizard chess has never been one of Hermione’s favorite games in the past.

It is something in which she should excel since it is based on logically predicting an opponent’s move and forming a strategy for success, but she’s never been able to play it very well. There’s just something about it, and about Muggle chess, as well, that is difficult for her in a way she finds both frustrating and annoying. She always loses when she plays Ron and even Harry can defeat her rather effortlessly so she rarely plays anymore because she hates to lose. When she plays, she likes to win.

The fact that it is Charlie’s favorite game is a surprise. He’s so full of energy that she finds it difficult to imagine him sitting for so long. It doesn’t take her long to realize he’s the one who taught Ron how to play. Charlie has a knack for predicting people, possibly from years spent as an observer, and he beats Ron with an ease she envies and admires. His strategy is brilliant, he makes it look simple, and it shows that he’s not as stupid as people seem to think.

She has been guilty of that assumption, of course. She only met him a couple of times when she was younger and he never struck her as being particularly intelligent. He was the Quidditch player who worked with dragons. He is short and muscular, masculine and energetic, covered in freckles and burns with a kind smile and green eyes that see more than people realize. She’d dismissed him years ago as brawn without brains, she has to admit, and had never given him much of a chance until she was older and knew from experience that appearances could sometimes be deceiving.

Their relationship has been a surprise to most everybody. They really don’t have a lot in common on the surface and most people don’t seem to think they’re going to last despite it being over a year now since he first shocked her by asking her out to dinner. Fleur thinks it’s just sex between them as do many others, it seems.

Hermione knows they would all probably be shocked to learn that she and Charlie were together two months before they ever even had sex. There was kissing, kisses that made her toes curl and her body warm, and there was cuddling, snuggling was one of Charlie’s favorite ways to pass time, but the sex didn’t happen until they were ready for things to transition to something more.

Charlie looks up from the chess board and winks as he nods at the empty chair opposite him. Their gazes meet and for a moment, they’re both taken back to the night when things had changed. It had been during a game of wizarding chess, of all things. It was the night she gained a new appreciation for the game after Charlie beat her twice before suggesting they play a different version. Hermione had never heard of strip wizard chess, but she had accepted the offer, knowing what it meant, and there had been over an hour of quiet teasing foreplay as they played. They’d ended up in her bed before the game was finished.

It has now become a tradition of theirs to play during the weekend. Charlie plots and uses complicated strategies that come to him easily after a simple glance at the chess board. Hermione finds his efforts cute but isn’t above developing her own strategy that consists of wearing naughty knickers and bras beneath several layers of clothing and distracting him in a way that could possibly, if one wanted to get very technical, be called cheating. Charlie, however, doesn’t seem to mind her strategy at all.

He sits down and grins at her, pushing his spectacles up his nose as his gaze sweeps over her as she walks to the table where their game is set up. Hermione sits down and lets her foot slide along his calf casually as they begin the game, both interested to see if this time they actually finish a game. Somehow, she doubts they do, and she doesn’t mind that at all since, in this game, they both win.

The End


End file.
